A Weasley of my Own
by verliebtindich
Summary: This story is about Hermione's older sister who comes to visit the Weasleys in the summer before her sister starts her fourth year. There she falls in love with one of the Weasleys.  Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

A Weasley of my Own

**NOTE: **_This is my first fanfiction so I hope, you like it. Please tell me if you do and even or especially if you don't, so I can improve it! Thanks!_

_Oh, and of course I don't own anything!_

Chapter One

Hello, my name is Katharina Granger and I'm Hermione Granger's elder sister.

When I was fourteen years old my little sister was visited by a foreign woman who told us that little Hermione was a witch and therefore would not go to the same school as I did but to Hogwarts, a school for witchcraft and wizardry.

Surprisingly enough I believed this immediately. When my mum and dad told me about the conversation they had had with the woman, I thought of all the funny things that seemed to happen around Hermione and being a witch was a reasonable explanation why people who were mean to her had funny accidents or why the spinach on her plate was always gone when I had only looked away for two seconds.

So my first reaction to this information was sadness because I was looking forward to going to the same school as my little sister again and showing her around and telling her about the teachers or helping her doing her homework (not that she ever needed my help but I had imagined us talking about history or biology or other interesting subjects). But now she was about to go to a boarding school for wizards and witches and I did not believe that they were taught about history or biology in Hogwarts.

The next day my parents and Hermione went to London were they were to meet Professor McGonagall, the woman from the day before, again to buy some stuff Hermione needed for school.

When they came back home, my little sister was really excited. She showed me all the new things they had bought: her robes, a cauldron, quills, a wand(!) and of course all the books she needed for schools and those she did not really need but had still bought because she found them interesting.

I was a bit jealous of her because this all seemed to be so unbelievable and special and made my own life look quite boring. Though I had no real reason to think that my life was boring. I went to an excellent school and had top marks in every subject and I enjoyed going to school. I had some very good friends who I wouldn't have wanted to miss for all the money or all the wizardry in the world and I played rounders in our school's team and was one of the best in it.

Now that I think of it, I guess, it was a bit unfair of me to be jealous of my dear little sister because before she went to Hogwarts, life at school was quite hard for her.

She was of course the best pupil in her class as well. But as she was a little bossy and therefore many kids in her class didn't like her very much and she was often quite sad when she came back home from school. In these cases I usually cheered her up and made her smile again.

So, as you can see, we were really close when Hermione went to Hogwarts and that's why I was a bit sad about it.

But still during the holidays we had a great time together! We went on holidays with our parents and Hermione told me everything about her new school and her new friends and I told her everything about my life.

This year's summer we had to stay at home because mum and dad had to work in their dentist's office but I didn't really mind because Hermione and I could still have loads of fun at home.

It was a sunny morning and the two of us were sitting at the breakfast table, having some toast and tea. Hermione was just explaining to me what and Animagus was, when an owl soared through the open window. I still wasn't used to owls flying in and out of our house and winced. But Hermione just went over to the tiny little owl and took off a letter from its leg. The owl started hooting and sounded almost proud.

While I was watching the little bird fly around our kitchen, Hermione had opened the letter and gave a little scream of excitement.

"What is it?" I asked, looking at her.

"It's from Ron." she said and I smiled to myself because Hermione had been talking about Ron quite a lot recently.

"So?", I said, "What is it? Did he propose to you?" I grinned.

But Hermione threw me a severe look which wiped the grin from my face.

"No, they are inviting me to the Quidditch Worldcup! Can you believe it? And it gets even better: I told Ron that you and I were staying home these holidays because mum and dad have to work, and so they invited you, too!"

I just gaped at my little sister. I could not believe it! This was just great! I had always wished to meet Hermione's friends. And now I had not only the chance to meet them, but also to visit the wizarding world! That was something I had always wished for but I never dared to say it aloud because Hermione had told me about all the Confidentiality Agreements concerning their world. That was also why she was not allowed to show me any magic, which I found very sad because I could never see what she learned at school, only hear what she told me about it.

"So, do you want to come?" Hermione asked with shiny eyes.

"Of course!" I said, "I always wished to meet your friends!"

"Oh, great. Then I am going to answer the letter immediately."

And she fetched a quill and a piece of parchment and wrote an answer which she knotted to the tiny owl's leg and sent it away.


	2. Chapter 2

One week later Hermione and I were ready to leave for the Borrow, the Weasleys' house. Mum and dad had planned to take us there by car because Ron's parents had invited them over for tea. When we got into the car I was unbelievably excited. My little sister was grinning at me and I smiled back. She was, of course, excited too. But in another, much more comfortable way, than I was. _She_ was excited about seeing her friends again. But _I _was excited about meeting a bunch of foreign people _who could do magic_!

Subconsciously I started to wrap my hair around my fingers and chewing and my lower lip. Hermione looked at me and said:"So, are you excited about meeting the Weasleys?"

I looked at her wide-eyed, "Well, kind of"

"Oh, don't you worry. The Weasleys are the nicest people I know. When I met them for the first time, I was feeling a bit uneasy, too. But Mrs Weasley is such a dear person and I'm sure she will make you feel at home at the Burrow in no time."

"All right." I sighed and stopped wrapping my hair around my fingers but still continued to chew on my lip.

On our way Hermione did her best to calm me down and keep my thoughts away from worrying and I was really thankful for it. But when our car pulled into a little yard I started getting nervous again. By the time my sister grinned so hard that I wondered how such I grin could fit into her face. When the car stopped, she jumped out of the car and headed towards the door of a funny-looking farm house. The same moment this door opened and a short, sturdy woman, wearing a flowered apron came outside, followed by a boy, who I immediately recognized as Ron. While Hermione went over to the two and hugged them both, me and my parents got out of the car and got my and Hermione's suitcases.

By the time we reached the door there were not only two read-haired people (and my sister) standing in front of it but eight! I started feeling quite intimidated because most of them looked so very... _wizardish._

A man who I expected to be Mr Weasley and who was smiling at me, was wearing a black cloak and a top hat. And Mrs Weasley was carrying something in her apron's pocket which looked very much like a wand.

I knew of course that wizards were usually dressed like that and that they all had wands. After all Hermione had shown me both her wand and her robes. So I shouldn't have really been too surprised about it. But still it were two very different animals if you saw them lying in your sisters wardrobe or if you saw them live on some people.

Nevertheless I didn't have time to become accustomed to this whole situation because now Mrs Weasley approached me. She shook my hand smiling and said: "You must be Katharina, Hermione's sister. We're so happy to have you here, too! Welcome to the Burrow!"

Hermione was right about her. She was a really nice person and her warm welcome had taken a lot of weight off my mind.

Then she turned to her children and introduced them to me, "This is of course Ron – this is Bill, our oldest – Fred and George – that's Percy and our daughter Ginny. Oh, and this is my husband, Athur."

I shook all their hands and tried to remember their names. Hermione was right, that the twins, Fred and George, really did look identical. And Bill, the oldest Weasley-son looked quite...well, I didn't usually use this word because I always say that it's the inner values that count, but he looked just...sexy. He had a long red ponytail, was tall and had a really handsome face. And this smile of his, now that he was looking at me...wow!

But still I think it's the inner values that count and I'm not someone to fall for a guy only because he's good-looking. So I turned to look at the other Weasleys. Percy looked a bit annoyed and as if he wanted to do something else instead of greeting his little brother's friend's family. And I was quite right. When Mrs Weasley lead us all into their big kitchen, he didn't stay with us but left the room and I heard Ron whisper, rather loudly, towards Hermione "Percy's working for the ministry now, as I have told you in my letter, and now he is even more busy than he was last year! He's always talking about his _important_ job and what his boss, Mr Crouch, would be doing without him. And remember never to talk about anything concerning the ministry or other countries when he's around or he'll bore us to death with stories about the import of cauldrons and stuff." Ron rolled his eyes Hermione looked as though she was interested in Percy's new job but didn't dare to ask because Ron seemed so annoyed about it.

When we had sat down around the table I had a chance to look at the Weasleys' kitchen. This was just amazing! On the wall there were pictures. That wasn't something that exciting. But the people in the pictures were actually moving! I spent some time watching a picture of Fred and George arguing about a broomstick. Then I caught sight of the most peculiar clock I had ever seen. I did not have two hands and numbers around the edge but nine hands of which eight pointed to "At home" and one to "Outside". I smiled. Then I wondered who this ninth hand belonged to, when this final hand suddenly moved to "on their way".


	3. Chapter 3

**NOTE: **_I'm sorry to tell you that this chapter is even shorter than the two before. And, being honest, doesn't even have much content. But I promise to make up for it in the next chapter (if you still want to go on reading)! So, enjoy! _

_And as always, I don't own anything!_

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><p>"Would you like to have some milk or sugar in your tea?" Mrs Weasley interrupted my track of thoughts. She was standing in front of the stove and tipped kettle with her wand which made steam come out of its top immediately. I blinked once or twice and then I said "Yes, please."<p>

Next to me my parents were already deep in conversation with Mr Weasley. Hermione had told me that his job had something to do with normal people and that he was really interested in our way of life. I just heard my father explain to him what he and mum did as dentists. Then I turned to my right because Hermione had nudged me and leaned over to talk to me.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, of course" I answered.

"Ron has just told me that Harry will arrive later this afternoon so you can meet him then, too."

"That's nice.", I smiled.

"Oy, Kathrine!" one of the twins suddenly yelled at me.

"It's Katharina, actually." I corrected him out of habit. I was used to people misunderstanding my name because it was a rather rare name here in England.

"What is it like to go to a Muggle-school?"

Ron, sitting next to Hermione laughed out loud, "To her it must be as normal as going to Hogwarts is to you!" he said.

"Shut up Ron!" the twin said and looked at me expectantly.

"Well," I shrugged "Ron is actually right. It _is_ perfectly normal to me. But...well...we don't do magic." I said, just to give him a more satisfying answer than 'It's normal'.

He raised one eye-brow and opened his mouth. Probably to tell me that my answer was _not_ satisfying. But suddenly the door flew open and the last member of the Weasley-family stood in the doorway.

"Sorry, I'm late, but I totally lost track of time." he said, sounding a bit out of breath and carrying a polished broomstick over his shoulder.

"Oh, Charlie!" Mrs Weasley screamed and jumped up from her chair. "Come over here and meet the Grangers! This is Hermione, Ron's friend from Hogwarts", she said and Hermione got up and shook Charlie's hand "- and her parents Mr and Mrs Granger" (he shook my parents' hands) "And her sister Katharina who is going to stay with us for the Quidditch world cup." I got slightly up from my chair and reached over the table to shake Charlie's hand. He had the firmest handshake of all the Weasleys but it fitted his outward appearance as, though he was not as tall as Bill or Ron, he looked very muscular. When I looked into his face a saw a big grin spreading from his mouth to his bright eyes. "Nice to meet you!" he said.

Nice to..." I started saying. But Hermione interrupted me "I'm so happy to finally meet you! Ron has already told me and Harry so much about you and your work in Romania!"

I could hear from her tone that she was excited to meet Ron's older brother (though I did not understand why she hadn't made such a fuss about Bill) even so I still didn't like the fact that she interrupted me when it was obvious that Charlie had been talking to me and I frowned a bit.

"Oh, did he?" Charlie now answered and shot a short smile into my direction. "He has mentioned you in his letter as well. Told me you are the brightest witch he ever knew!"

"Oh, did he really?" Hermione said, turning pink on her cheeks and looking at Ron. I couldn't help but be proud of my little sister, even though it was a funny compliment being called a 'witch'. But however funny it sounded, I knew that it really meant a lot to Hermione.

Then Charlie went upstairs to, as he said, take a shower because he was all sweaty from flying.

After a little while it was time for my parents to go back home. They went to their car, kissed me and Hermione good-bye and drove away.

For a short moment I felt a bit alone, being the only "muggle" left behind. But this feeling vanished in no time when Ron offered to show his place to me and Hermione and the three of us and Ginny went back inside.


	4. Chapter 4

Ron and Ginny lead our way into the house and Hermione and I followed them. We climbed up some flight of stairs while the two Weasleys pointed to different doors we passed and said "That's Percy's room" and "This is where the twins sleep. You better stay off their room."

When we reached the third floor Ginny said "Ta-da, that's my room. You two are staying with me while you're here." She opened the door and lead us into her room.

In the corner there stood a bed and on the floor were two air mattresses which almost filled the whole room.

But despite the fact that the room was so crammed, it looked quite cosy. There was a vase with shimmering sunflowers on the window sill. Above Ginny's bed there hang a small golden ball with wings which looked as if it was made out of papier-maché but was flying above the bed without strings or anything of that kind.

While I was still trying to see every little detail of the room, Ron cleared his throat and asked into Hermione's direction: "Would you like to see my room now?"

She nodded enthusiastically and Ginny and I followed them up the next flight of stairs. When we had reached the top-most floor, Ron pushed the door open and showed us into his room. At first sight it looked as if he had an orange wallpaper. But on second sight I realized that it wasn't the wallpaper but quite a few posters of the "Chudley Canons"

"What are the Chudley Canons?" I asked.

"The best Quidditch team in the world!" Ron said wholeheartedly.

"Well, not really" Ginny interrupted, "they are rank 20 in the British Quidditch League and the Harpies are way better than the Canons." And she poked her tongue at Ron.

I was just about to ask more questions about Quidditch, when we heard Mrs Weasley call our names from the kitchen.

When we got there, she told us that Mr Weasley was about to pick up Harry, Hermione's other best friend and asked Ron to go with him.

"You girls better stay here with me and Bill and Charlie in the kitchen. If you don't mind, you could help me prepare dinner." She said with a questioning tone in her voice.

"Certainly!" I was eager to answer. My parents had told me before to be thankful to the Weasleys because it was very nice of them to invite me over, eventhough they didn't even know me and I agreed to it. So I did my best to help.

"Well, let's see...what could you do, that you don't need magic for..." she was thinking aloud. I could feel myself blush. I hadn't expected that it could be any kind of trouble that I couldn't do magic when it came to chore.

"Oh, don't worry, Hermione and I aren't allowed to do magic either," Ginny reminded me smiling, " she always says things like that. But it wasn't meant to sound mean, was it mum?"

"Oh, of course not, my dear. There are plenty of things for you to do. I was just thinking, which ones wouldn't be too impolite to ask you to do. That's all."

In the end, she told us to peel some carrots and potatoes.

We had just sat around the table when suddenly a bedlam broke loose in the room next door. We all jumped up and went into the living room.

Ron, Fred and George were standing their, dying from laughter. Then there was a loud bang. I turned around and saw a dark-haired boy appearing in the fireplace. He stepped off the fire-guard and said grinning: "What was _that_?"

"Oh, that was only one of our famous Ton Tongue Toffees" said one of the twins grinning.

"WHAT?" screamed Mrs Weasley suddenly.

It was obvious that the twins hadn't realized that she had entered the room as well, as they both jumped into the air when they heard her voice.

"I thought the ones I had destroyed were all of these horrible trick-sweets!"

"Er...well..."

"Well...er..."

"Let's better go into the kitchen" Bill said and we all followed his advise.

"Harry, I think you haven't met my brother Bill and Charlie yet" Ron introduced his two eldest brothers and they shook hands with Harry.

"And this is my sister Katharina." Hermione said and I smiled and took Harry's hand.

"Hi!"

"Hi Katharina! Hermione has already told me so much about you. I wish all muggles could be as supportive as you and your parents."

"Oh, thanks"

I took a closer look at Harry. He was shorter than Ron, almost as short as Hermione. He wore glasses and underneath his fringe I could see the lightning scar my sister had told me about. He was famous for this scar, though I could not really remember why and at the moment I could not imagine why a tiny scar on your forehead could make you famous. The way Hermione had talked about this infamous scar, I had imagined it covering half of his face and not only a small part of his forehead.

"Alright then" Mrs Weasley interrupted my track of thoughts, who had just re-entered the kitchen and still had red marks on her cheeks.

"Bill, Charlie, could you please take out the table so that we can have dinner in the garden?"

Bill and Charlie took out their wands and went outside.

"And you four take the cutlery and the dishes outside, please."

I took a pile of tables and followed Ginny outside.


	5. Chapter 5

Note: _Sorry for not posting for such a long time and of course thanks for the two reviews I got from _Ronnhermioneforevs_ and_ basserandstuff_. I really appreciated it! And I would be SO happy to get only a few more reviews. Please!  
>I hope you enjoy the following chapter, I did my best to make up for not writing for such a long time. And don't mind all my mistakes (feel free to tell me about them;))!<br>So, without further ado, here's chapter 5, exclusively for you!_

_And as usually, I don't own Harry Potter!_

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><p>I was squeezed between Percy and Mr Weasley for dinner. I couldn't have two more different neighbours at table. Percy kept ignoring me and tried to tell Hermione about his new job and my sister even seemed quite interested. Nevertheless I felt quite uncomfortable next to him. I had the impression that Percy didn't like me.<p>

Mr Weasley on the other hand was delighted to sit next to me and questioned me through starter all about my "muggle life". I liked him quite a lot. Especially because he showed so much interest in me (in contrast to my other neighbour) and he seemed really nice. But I wasn't quite sure if I could answer all his questions to his satisfaction.

"Tell me, Katharina," he said through a mouthful of cucumber-salad, "how do these _ticket-machines_ work, which I once saw at King's Cross?"

I looked at him, a bit puzzled but did my best to explain it:"Well, I'm not entirely sure. But it works with electricity..." I started of.

"Oh, electlcity!" Mr Weasley exclaimed and looked at looked at me wide-eyed. "I believe that's a subject on its own. I have read some articles about it but never really understood how it worked."

I sighed to myself, having never really been brilliant at physics either but tried to explain how it worked to him.  
>"You know, there are some small little things in everything, though you cannot see them. They are called electrons. And if you put them into movement, electricity works...I think."<p>

Mr Weasley did not look as if he had understood my not-so-good explanation but smiled at me.

"Well, never mind." he said.

When he was just about to ask another question (probably about the ticket-machines again) Mrs Weasley came to my rescue.  
>"Arthur, don't annoy the poor girl with your weird questions about the muggle-world. Come here and help me with the roast."<p>

And Mr Weasley got up to slice the dinner.

I turned to my other side but Percy went on ignoring me, so I looked up across the table and saw that Charlie, who was sitting opposite me had been listening to mine and his fathers conversation and was looking at me now.

I could feel a shiver going up my spine and shook my head slightly to make it go away.

"It must be weird for you," Charlie addressed me now, "to be among so many wizards when there is only one witch in your family and you usually live a peaceful muggle-life." He winked.

"Yeah," I anwered, "It is even weirder because I have never seen Hermione perform any magic. You know, because of this secret-keeping-thing."

"Oh, right, I sometimes forget about that, as I have been out of age for quite a while." He winked again. Surprisingly enough, I didn't feel uncomfortable about it. That was usually how I felt when boys started flirting with me. Or did anything comparable to flirting as I was never really sure if that was really what they did.

"I took Muggle Studies when I was at school and I can partly understand my father for being so interested in your life. It really is interesting to us how you manage to live without magic. Probably as interesting as our life is to you. However I am not as much into muggles as dad is." He laughed and then asked, "If you want to know anything about magic you want to know, feel free to ask!"

I thought about it for a moment.

"Can you tell me how it works, that you are able to do magic at all?"

Charlie started laughing again and though I did not know what he was laughing about, I couldn't help smiling because his laughter sounded so happy.

"I'm sorry but I believe that I can answer this question as good as you answered the question about electricity. Or even worse. It just works for us. I've no idea how. I believe nobody could really explain it to you. Or maybe not nobody. Dumbledore would certainly be able to."

"Who?"

"Oh, Dumbledore. He's the headmaster at Hogwarts. You know Hogwarts, don't you?"

"Yep!" I answered smiling, being happy to know at least one thing. "Can you tell me something else about Hogwarts? I know that Hermione loves being there. But she never talks that much about it when she's at home. Probably because she doesn't want to make me feel bad because I cannot go there." I said with a slightly sad smile.

Charlie looked at me for a moment before he answered.

"Well, as your sister has probably already told you: Hogwarts is great. I loved being there so much. I mean, Romania is great too. But Hogwarts is just...Hogwarts. I don't know a single person who didn't enjoy their time there. It's this huge castle with lots of secret passages and you never get to know all the Hogwarts. And then there is the Great Hall, where we had feasts every year. The Hall's ceiling is magical so it always looks like the sky outside. I remember the first thing I did on a day of a Quidditch match was looking at the ceiling when I entered the Great Hall."

He stopped for a second, then asked: "But now I start to understand how Hermione felt. I feel bad, telling you all about Hogwarts because it_ is_ true, you can never go there and it seems mean to me, telling you how great everthing there is."

I could not really deny what he said so I asked:  
>"Can you tell me a bit more about Quidditch? Hermione isn't so much into it, it seems. And that's at least something I am really going to see first hand, as she has told me we are going to the World Cup."<p>

"Yeah, right!" Charlie said enthusiastically,"I'm sure you'll love Quidditch. In fact, everybody I know, does. What do you already know about it?"

"Only that it's _the_ sport at Hogwarts and that it's being played on brooms."

"Well, that's at least something." Charlie said and then he started explaining all the rules to me and informed me how the world cup went so far.

While he was talking, I took a closer look at him. It was true that he wasn't as good-looking in the common sense as his older brother. But he had such a shine to his eyes that made my stomach go all edgy. He had the darkest blue eyes I had ever seen. I couldn't help but stare at them.

"Oh, I believe I'm boring you to death!" Charlie exclaimed as he obviously misinterpreted my stare.

"No, not at all!" I hastened to assure him, "I am very interested in sports. At my school I am captain of the girls' rounders team." I said with some proud in my voice. I had worked really hard in the past few years to get become captain and when my trainer had asked me last year if I wanted to become the rounders captain I was more than delighted.

"What's rounders?" Charlie asked and I could tell from his voice that he was really interested. That gave me some self-confidence because this time it was _me_ he was able to tell something interesting!

So I started telling him about the game and my position and about the final match against another school last year which we had only won because I got us the last points.

While we had been talking I hadn't realized anything around us. Not Mr Weasley, who had come back ages ago, not the delicious roast, Mrs Weasley had cooked for us, not even the unbelievably wonderful dessert, which consisted of ice-cream and cake.

But now I could hear Mrs Weasley say that it was already past midnight and that it was time for us to go to bed because we had to get up very early the next morning.

So we all got up from the table. Hermione, Harry and I thanked Mrs Weasley for the dinner and then we all went up the stairs.

When we reached the floor where Charlie's and Bill's room was, I could feel Charlie look at me and turned around to see him smile into my direction and hear him say: "It was really nice to talk to you, Katharina." I smiled back at him, feeling my face slightly blush and went up the stairs after Hermione and Ginny.


	6. Chapter 6

**Note:**_Dear Readers, I feel really bad because I think this chapter sucks, but I didn't really know how to put it differently and it already took me ages to write this. So I hope you will forgive me. I promise to make up for it in the next chapters if you are still willing to read them. And also, I am afraid that there are quite a few language/ grammar mistakes in this chapter so again: sorry!  
><em>

_And: I don't own Harry Potter_

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><p>When we got dressed, Ginny turned the light out and I lay on the air mattress and wasn't able to fall asleep even though I was really tired. There was just so much in my head I head to think about. It was so amazing, having spent the whole day with a family of wizards. I still couldn't believe it. And even tough they were wizards, they were also quite normal and really nice! I liked Charlie especially. I could not really tell why but I had really enjoyed talking to him during dinner and now I couldn't get the image of his smiling face out of my head.<p>

I turned round on my mattress and tried to think of something else because the thought of Charlie gave me a funny feeling to my stomach which I didn't really like.

Luckily I got some distraction in the next moment.

"Are you still awake" I could hear Hermione whisper through the dark next to me.

"Yeah." I whispered back.

"Are you okay?"

I didn't need more explanation from her. She was referring to me being the only one who could not do magic. She was worried that I felt left out.

"Yes, don't worry!" I reassured her. "Everybody is just so nice that I cannot help but like the Weasleys!"

I smiled even though she could not see it.

The I heard Hermione sigh. "I'm so happy to hear that! Now I don't have to feel bad for you because I was so happy today, too. Aren't Ron and Harry great? They're always so much fun. Although they don't take school as serious as they actually should. But I guess that's just what boys are like."

"Yeah..." Boys was just something I _didn't _want to talk about right now. But I was fortunate again, as Hermione then said: "Well, we best try to sleep now. Don't forget that we have to get up very early tomorrow. Sleep tight!"

"You, too." I answered and gave a fake yawn to give the impression that I was as tired as she was.

But whereas I could hear her breathing slower after one or two minutes, I was still wide awake. If I could just _not_ think about Charlie! I wondered whether wizards had any solution to my problem. I was quite sure that they had. As far as I knew, there were solutions for almost every problem I could think of. But still, that was no help for me at all as I was neither a wizard, nor a witch.

'Okay, just think of something else.' I told myself. So I tried thinking about Mrs Weasleys wonderful dinner tonight. 'Hmm - there had been this gorgeous roast with croquettes and gravy...' But then I remembered Charlie handing me the plate with the croquettes and the picture of him pushed the picture of the dinner away immediately.

Thinking of him, I bit my lower lip. I just didn't want to believe what was quite obvious, namely the fact that I had fallen in love with him. And here I was not even believing in love at first sight! And now it had happened to me! How horrible. And then not even with some boy from school but with a _grown-up wizard_! I simply had to fall out of love again. If falling in love could happen so fast, falling out of love simply must happen that fast, too! That was simple maths! I mean, honestly, otherwise it could only turn out horribly for me, as there were so many facts speaking against me: Number one: I was not the slightest bit pretty. I knew that for a fact because all my friends at school already had a boyfriend but me. Number two: He was at least five years older than me and probably saw me as a little girl. Number three, and this was the most important one: I was a _muggle_. Which meant with other words that I had to be really boring to him. For, honestly, who would be interested into a normal girl if he knew lots of girls who could do magic?

I sighed deeply and turned around again. I wondered for a moment whether it would be okay to get outside again for a moment because I had the feeling of urgently needing fresh air but then decided against it.

After what felt like ages I finally fell asleep and had a funny dream about all the characters of my favourite TV series being wizards in secret.

We were all woken quite early in the morning by Mrs Weasley who came into Ginny's bedroom and opened her window. As it was still dark outside this didn't do much to the lighting but it sent a cold wind into the room which helped us get up and dressed a bit quicker.

"Hurry up, girls!" Mrs Weasley told us, "You have to leave in about an hour and before that I want you to have breakfast in the kitchen." Then she scurried out of the room to go back downstairs.

With lots of yawning and moaning the three of us got ready and followed her about half an hour later.

When we entered the kitchen, Mr and Mrs Weasley and the twins were already sitting around the table with their mugs and sandwiches in front of them. I had to stifle a grin when I saw Fred or George swaying with his eyes closed, obviously still half asleep.

I wasn't that tired anymore after having washed my face with very cold water and I had the impression that the twins could do with some cold water, too.

Mrs Weasley led us to our places at the table and poured some coffee into my mug and tea into Ginny's and Hermione's.

While we were nibbling at our sandwiches, Ron and Harry entered the kitchen, who also looked rather sleepy.

"Well, I guess it's time for us to go, now." said Mr Weasley after a while, looking at his watch.

When we got up from the table we heard steps from upstairs. Surprised we all turned around, wondering who of the others who would come later, had got up so early. Then we saw Charlie appear on the kitchen's threshold. He still looked sleepy too but smiled at us all.

"Just wanted to wish you a pleasant journey and see you later!" he said. I could see Mr and Mrs Weasley exchange a surprised look. Then Mrs Weasley and Charlie escorted us out of the house and waved to us as we were leaving.


	7. Chapter 7

We walked out of the yard into the cold dawn. I was shivering slightly and I was still so tired that I stumbled once or twice because I didn't lift my feet high enough.

I turned my head and saw Hermione who looked just like I felt, next to me. When she caught me looking, she smiled. But then her smile turned into a big yawn. I was infected by it and yawned myself.

"Do you remember when we went to France last year? I think we had to get up even earlier." She said.

"Yes. But we didn't have to walk to France." I answered, raising my eyebrows.

"Oh, we don't have to walk all the way of course," Mr Weasley called over from the front of our little group, "we only have to get up to Stoathead Hill, right behind the village of Ottery St. Catchpole. We can almost see it from here." And he pointed ahead of us. But as it was still quite dark I could only just make out some houses which I believed belonged to the village.

"But tell me, when you went to France, how exactly did you get there? You didn't use one of these _air plates_, did you?" Mr Weasley asked wide-eyed.

"No, we didn't go there by plane. We went by car..."

"Cars can go across water?" he interrupted me perplexed.

"Oh, no. We took the ferry. But on our way back, we went through the Channel Tunnel by car. That goes below the ocean." I told him.

After that Mr Weasley wanted to know everything about boats in general in ferries in specific and about the Tunnel and therefore I didn't realize how the sun rose and a hill became apparent in front of us until we were right at its foot.

When we had climbed up the hill, I saw a man of Mr Weasley's age and a handsome boy about my age. Mr Weasley introduced them as Amos and Cedric Diggory and we all shook hands.

Out of the corner of my eyes I could see the twins frown at Cedric and wondered if it was because he was one of these annoying good-looking boys who thought that they were something better than anyone around only because of their looks. I took a closer look at him but he didn't seem to be one of these guys.

I gave Hermione a questioning look but before she could say anything, Mr Diggory pointed to an old boot, lying on the ground and said "We've already found it."

The Weasleys seemed to be relieved but me, Hermione and Harry were confused.

"What's the matter with this boot?" Harry asked.

"Oh, of course, you don't know – the boot is a port key. We all have to touch it in about a minute and the it will take us the moor where the World Cup takes place. You better touch it now, it will leave every second."  
>I stretched out my arm to touch the sole of the boot, having a weird feeling. Would I really be experiencing magic now? Or would it fail because nobody had thought of the fact that I was no wizard or witch or anything like that. I wanted to catch Mr Weasley's eye to see weather everything was okay. But when I looked up, the only person I saw looking back was this Cedric-boy. But at least he smiled at me reassuringly.<p>

Just in the second when I wanted to return his smile I felt the strangest thing ever: I was pulled forward at my navel and it felt like I was moving in a very_ very_ fast roller coaster. There was a blur of colours around me and I was screaming but could not hear my own voice. And then, only a second later, it was over and I fell hard on my knees on the ground. When I looked around I could see the faces of Hermione, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Fred and George next to me who were also just getting up and looked rather confused. Mr Weasley and the Diggorys were already standing by our side, waiting for us to adjust to the situation.

I glanced around and saw that we were in a forest clearing and that there was an oddly dressed man standing next to Mr Diggory who was taking the boot from him and throwing it into a box of other funny objects which a presumed to be more port keys.


	8. Chapter 8

By early midday I was still not getting used to all the magic that was going on around me on the campsite. We had set up our two tents among the weirdest looking tents I had ever seen in my life, including circus tents.

First I had thought that at least our tents were normal ones. But when Mr Weasley had ushered us into the bigger one, I almost fainted because it was so surreal. From the outside the tent looked like a normal old tent for about three or four people. But when we went into it, it was much much bigger and contained a living room _and_ a kitchen! Mr Weasley had explained to me that they had used an expanding charm on it, which did explain, why it looked small from the outside and big from the inside. But still I could not believe it and had a funny feeling when I was inside the tent.

Luckily right now we were sitting in front of the two tents and Mr Weasley was trying to light a fire, while Hermione, Ron and Harry went away to fetch some water for tea.

"Why don't you just do it by magic, dad? Everybody else is doing it." Fred complained. (I could only tell he was Fred because earlier I had overheard George address him with his name.)

"You know very well that we are not supposed to do magic. And especially I, working for the Department of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts am supposed to set an example for the other wizards." Mr Weasley said cheerily.

"I think he's only doing it for the fun of it." George muttered and Fred nodded.

"Anyway, when are Bill, Charlie and Percy getting here?" his twin brother then asked.

"They should be here in a little while. I told them to come at noon."

"Why exactly didn't they come with us?" I wondered aloud.

"They can apparate. That means materializing from one place to another in no time." Fred explained.

I goggled at him.

"That sounds cool! Is it difficult?"

"No idea. But Charlie is not exactly good at it. When he took his exam in apparating, he didn't get the place where he wanted to apparate right and landed in an old granny's lap. It was hilarious! They had to change her memory afterwards because she was a muggle and of course not used to big boys suddenly appearing out of thin air on her lap."

He and George roared with laughter and I smiled, though I also felt a bit sorry for Charlie.

While the twins were talking among themselves again and Ginny was helping Mr Weasley igniting the fire, my thoughts wandered to Charlie again. I was a bit excited about seeing him quite soon now and tried to straighten my hair. I looked up to see if he and the other two missing Weasley brothers were already arriving but I could only see witches and wizards in funny dresses, I did not know.

"Katharina, can you give me a hand with these fire-sticks?" Mr Weasley asked and handed me a matchbox.  
>I got up to show him to to light them and he tried it himself, when I suddenly heard a deep voice calling over from behind me.<p>

"Here we are, dad!"

I turned around, intently trying not to blush and saw Charlie with Bill and Percy behind him, walking towards our tents with long strides.

I got up to greet them.

"Hi!" I said with a voice, quite a bit higher than mine and Charlie beamed at me.

Bill said hello, too but Percy looked a bit grumpy and I wondered what the reason for this could be.

"So, I see you've already put up the tents?" Bill asked and sat down on the lawn with us.

Percy went immediately into the boy's tent to take off his rucksack.

Charlie looked around and then sat down next to me, which sent a little wave of happiness through me.

"Seems like most of the people don't mind, showing that they are magical, do they?" Bill said.

"Yeah, but isn't it always the same: When we are coming together it is like people are showing off. But anyway this way Katharina could see a bit more of our magic, right?" Charlie said and winked at me.

I smiled. "Sure..." I started saying but was interrupted by George.

"You seem to show quite a big deal of interest in our Miss Granger here. Is it possible that you are letting us down in believing that you were not really interested in girls?" he said grinning and nudged Charlie with his elbow.

But Charlie stayed quite calm: "Come on, I am at least trying to make her feel welcome in our society. Can you imagine what it would be like for you to be among muggles only?"

The happiness that had risen inside me subsided at his words. Stupid me, I had thought he really liked me. Of course he didn't like me like that. He was only being friendly!  
>While I was still reproaching myself for being so stupid, Percy came out of the tent and made me feel even worse.<p>

"Don't be ridiculous George. You always come up the the most peculiar ideas. How could you imagine Charlie being interested in a muggle girl?"

He turned to me with a presumptuous look, "I mean, I have nothing against muggles, of course, but it's only that we are so different from each other."

"Oh, shut up Percy!" Charlie said angrily, "You almost sound like a death-eater. You better be careful dad doesn't hear you talking like that!"

"Yeah," Fred said, "I'd rather hear you talking about wizarding laws _than_ that!"

It was of course nice of the two of them to defend me. But it didn't make the things Percy said unsaid and I swallowed hard.

Luckily it was right then, when my sister and her friends reappeared from fetching some water. But when they handed their kettles over to Mr Weasley, it turned out that they had spilled so much of the water, that we needed more if we all wanted to have a cup of tea.

"I'll go and get some!" Charlie immediately volunteered when Mr Weasley mentioned it, "I can carry the water with the _Locomotor_-charm, so it won't spill." Mr Weasley did not look exactly happy with the idea of Charlie using magic, though it was forbidden but still, he nodded.

Charlie got up and I was a bit sad that he would go because, although he was obviously not in love with me, I enjoyed his company. But then he held out his hand to me and asked: "Do you wanna come with me?" I took his hand and he pulled me up from the ground, where I had been sitting.

"Alright, we're off, guys," he said, walking away from the tents. The he turned over his shoulder, looking at the twins and said, "To some place where I can talk to a girl without any funny assumptions being made about us." He winked and then we walked off.


	9. Chapter 9

Charlie and I were walking among the rows of tents towards some kind of water place. In the beginning there was so much for me to see that I was not really aware of being alone with Charlie. Each tent which came in view was different to the ones before. Some had towers, some changed their colour while we walked past them, others even had gardens built around with, with swimming pools. I couldn't stop staring at all these funny tents. I had never imagined that a camping site could be so interesting!

But after a while the peculiarities repeated themselves and I became uncomfortably aware of the silence between Charlie and me and thought of something intelligent to say when Charlie pointed towards some tents ahead of us and said:"Look, these are the Irish fans!" and laughed. I looked at them and immediately had to take a second look.

"Are these...are these shamrocks growing in their tents?" I asked bewildered.

"Indeed!" Charlie answered laughing, "I wonder why none of the ministry people told them off. Percy would certainly do that."

Then we both became quite again, remembering Percy's words.

"Listen, Katharina. I am really really sorry for what Percy said. He can be such a git sometimes...well very often actually. But every word he said is just not true. You are in no way inferior to us or any witch. In fact, I think you are so much more interesting than most of the witches I've met so far..."

By the end his voice had trailed off and as I looked at him, I could see his ears turning red.

"Oh and," now it was not only his ears but his whole face, blushing, and I wondered why, "I am not into boys. Just in case you understood that from what George had said."

Now it was my turn to blush. Hell, what was I to say now. Reassure him that did not believe him to be gay? Or would that sound insulting.

I went for a change of subject: "So – Ireland and which other country are in the Quidditch finals?"

Charlie looked at me with a funny expression I could not read on his face. Then he burst into a loud laughter. In fact, he laughed so hard that he almost fell over and reached for my arm to steady himself.

I was slightly confused. Did I say anything inappropriate or terribly stupid?

"Wha..." I began, but Charlie couldn't stop laughing.

"That was – that was - " he gasped, "That was the most terrible change of subject I have ever heard!" he laughed and bent over on me.

Okay, maybe he was right, it was really not a very good change. And I joined him in laughing.

"Kathrina!"

Suddenly I could hear somebody call my name (or rather some modification of it), though I did not recognize his voice.

Stopping laughing I turned around and saw Cedric Diggory from this morning waving at me. I pushed my hair behind my ears, which had fallen into my face while I had been laughing and smiled at him friendlily.

"Have you already settled in?" he asked, smiling back.

"Yes, kind of. Mr Weasley and the others have set up our tents. Things all work quite a bit faster when you can do magic, don't they."

"Yes, they do indeed." Cedric said and I could see him shuffle his right foot in the ground.

"Well, I am quite excited about the game. Do you by any chance know where you're going to sit?"

"We're in the V.I.P box!" Charlie interrupted and gave Cedric a funny look.

"Oh," Cedric said, "what a shame. Then I guess we won't meet there. My dad wasn't as fortunate as you. We only got tickets for block ten. But have a good time, anyway."

"Yeah, you too!" I answered smiling. I felt like I had to make up for Charlie's rudeness.

When Cedric had walked off, I confronted Charlie with it.

"What have you and the twins against Cedric? He seems to be nice."  
>"Yeah, sure."<p>

"So?"

"I don't know why the twins don't like him. For me, I cannot say that I don't like him. We hardly know each other."

"But you seemed...well... a bit harsh to him."

"Well, I'm sorry, Katharina, but I didn't mean to. Honestly."  
>And he looked me in the eyes as if he wanted me to tell him that I was not angry with him, which I hadn't even been in the first place. I mean how could I? He was wonderful and all so nice. I was only surprised at his behaviour.<p>

As I did not react fast enough, Charlie continued, "It is only that it looked like...well...never mind."

"Looked like what?"

"Really, never mind. It was something stupid."

I frowned a little bit but then I decided to leave it at that. He obviously didn't want to talk about whatever it was and I didn't want to intrude into things I didn't understand.

"So, who else except for Ireland is involved in the finals?" I asked, grinning.

I saw I grin twitch in the corner of his mouth and his face brightened up.

"It's Bulgaria."  
>"And who do you support?"<br>"Ireland. They've got the better players!"

"But Bulgaria's can't be too bad either, when they made it to the finals..."

"Well, they've got Krum."

"They've got _what_?" I was confused. Was this some kind of spell the Bulgarians used to win their games?

"It's not _what_, it's _who_. Viktor Krum, he's their Seeker. And he's probably the best Seeker there ever was. If it wasn't for Krum, Bulgaria would have left in the quater-finals. Or maybe even earlier."

Without noticing it, we had reached the water place. Charlie took the kettle he had been carrying all the way and filled it with water. When it was full, he pointed his wand at it, murmured some words I could not understand and the kettle stayed in the air in front of us.

"Let's go!" he said, while I was still staring at the flying kettle.

"Sometimes I _am_ jealous of you all, being able to perform magic." I said and could not entirely keep the sadness out of my voice.

He looked at me. Was that pity I could see in his eyes? But then he smiled at me.

"You know what?" And he reached out with his wandless hand for mine, "If you hold on to my hand, it is almost as if you would do the magic yourself." And with these words, he placed my hand on his.

When my hand touched his, it felt like magic! But I was quite sure that this feeling had little to do with the "real" magic. I could feel my heart beating twice as fast as usual and had the feeling that I almost fainted when I looked up into Charlie's dark-blue eyes which literally beamed at me.

I kept my hand a bit longer than necessary on his because it just felt so right. But then I carefully pulled it back.

"Thanks," I whispered, "that was a nice feeling."

Then I blushed again because the nice feeling was probably not the one he expected.

For the rest of our walk, Charlie told me more about the two Quidditch-teams and the individual players until we reached the others again.

Finally we had some tea and sausages. While we were all sitting on the lawn Mr Weasley showed us his colleagues from the Ministry, which was really interesting and Hermione and Harry knew as little about it as I did, so I was not the only one to ask a lot of questions, while Mr Weasley's sons seemed rather uninterested.

Once or twice I caught Charlie's look but every time I looked up, he looked away quickly.

When the evening arrived, lanterns along the way were lit and then the time came for us to go to the stadium at last.


	10. Chapter 10

_NOTE: Dear readers (in case, you're still there), I'm so so sorry for not writing for ages without a real excuse except for the fact that I wasn't really in the mood for writing and I didn't want to write just for the sake of writing. In this case I would have written stuff which I wouldn't even have liked myself. So, I hope you can forgive me and like the new chapter! (You know I don't own Harry Potter, don't you?)_

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><p>We all followed Mr Weasley down the path which lead to stadium. The path was illuminated by little lanterns and there was an excited chatter all around us. Even Hermione who usually wasn't that interested in sports was talking very quickly to Ron about the game and jumped up and down at his side. First I was walking alone, but then I was cornered by the twins.<p>

"Hey, K.!" one of them said, "Are as big a Quidditch fan as your little sister?"

I raised one brow at him and looked at Hermione. Even though she _was_ excited, she was no _real_ fan of Quidditch, as far as I knew.

"Well, I don't exactly know much about Quidditch, but it sounds fun."

"Do you do sports in your muggle world?"

I grinned at the word "muggle world" and then told them a bit about Rounders.

But then one of them interrupted me by saying: "But it still sounds a bit boring, 'cause you're not flying! I mean, you're so much slower, walking on the ground that I would probably fall asleep watching one of your matches..."

"But I think it could be fun, watching two girl-teams doing sports." His twin said, nudging him in the side.

I rolled my eyes but still had to grin at their typical boys' thought. It seemed like wizard and muggles weren't that different after all.

To get away from that topic I asked: "Is there anyway people can tell the two of you apart? I tried to find a difference in your faces, but I couldn't."

One of them, I thought it was George, even though I had no idea why, grinned at me and said: "Well, I think it's much more fun if you can't tell us apart..."  
>"But 'cause we like you," his brother continued," - and we want to make up for our least favourite brother – we'll tell you our greatest secret."<p>

At these words, they both leaned over from both sides and went on in a whispering tone, "In case you ever see us smile..."

"...Which hardly ever happens..."

"...you will be able to see that we've each got a dimple. But:..."

"...on different sides."

At these words they both grinned identically and I could see that it was true. On my left I could see a red-haired boy grinning at me with a dimple on his right cheek and the on my right I could see his identical likeness, only with the dimple on his left cheek.

"And," I asked hesitant,"who is who?"

"Can't you guess?" the twin on my right asked.

"Fred like 'right'" his brother said and pointed his thumb to his chest,

"...and George like 'left'" George continued and mirrored his brother's move.

"It's already in the words." They said together.

"Okay," I answered, "I'll try to remember it."

There was a short pause before George asked, "How old are you, anyway, K.?" and gave his brother a funny look, I did not understand.

"I'm seventeen. Why?"

"Bit young for Charlie, don't you think, Fred?"

"What?" I squeaked and looked at him shocked.

They both laughed out loud, while I started panicking.

"Don't worry," Fred said and put his arm around me, "We'll keep your secret."

"We don't look it but we can be as silent as a cauldron."  
>I frowned. "Is that some kind of wizard saying?"<br>"No, not really. It's only that cauldrons aren't that silent after all. You didn't believe that we could be silent as a grave, did you?"

I sighed, while they both broke into laughter about their own joke.

To my horror I suddenly realized Charlie, who had been walking in front of us all the time turned around now and shouted over to the twins:" What are you two laughing so hard about?"

"Oh, nothing, my dear brother, nothing..." They said together and both nudged me in the sides and blinking as they said that.

Charlie had stopped walking to wait for the three of us now.

Where I would have been pleased about this fact two minutes ago, I was feeling almost afraid about it now. What if the twins told Charlie what they had just found out? They seemed like they would find it unbelievably funny to put someone in an embarrassing situation. And in this case this someone would certainly be me. I damned them in my head while Charlie chose to walk between Fred and me.

I was just thinking about something to talk about so that the twins didn't get the opportunity to bring on this certain topic when Charlie said: "I hope these two haven't annoyed you. I know that they are very very good at it from own experience." He smiled but then gave his two younger brother a rather severe look.

I didn't know what to say but George immediately said: "You'd never guess what we were just talking about, Charlie."

_What? _Was he really closing in for the kill already? I opened my mouth but no words came out because I simply didn't know what to say and just couldn't believe it. What _could_ I do to stop him?

"What?" Charlie asked interestedly.

"Katharina has just told us about..."  
>"Wow, what's that?" I shouted in a feeble attempt to distract Charlie and pointed forwards.<p>

But at the same time Fred said: "...rounders."

"Oh, she's already told me about it, too. What do you think of it. It sounds fun, doesn't it?"

While the twins told Charlie about their ideas how to improve rounders by introducing broomsticks to it, I relaxed again, happy that they hadn't told Charlie what I feared they would tell him.

Then I realised that Charlie was actually talking to me, reacting to my disraction-question. For, what I hadn't realised, was that we had reached the stadium which looked amazing. It looked nothing like the football stadiums I knew and it was so _huge_!

Listening to Charlie I realised that he was talking about how the wizards had managed to keep this stadium secret from muggles who might have passed it on their Sunday strolls.

"They used Muggle-Repelling-Charms for it, you know?"

I looked at him puzzled.

"They had to put this charms on every square-inch around the stadium."

"How does it work?"

"Every time a muggle comes near it, they remember that they have something very important to do. Like writing an important letter or going on a date or anything."

"But why doesn't this charm work on me?"

"Oh, our father has asked a special permission for you. You probably aren't the only muggle-family member who visits the World Cup and I believe the ministry's got some kind of list with all those muggles who are allowed to see the stadium and on whom the Muggle-Repelling doesn't work."

By the time we had already reached the entrance of the stadium and Mr Weasley announced:"We're going to sit in the top box. Come on, hurry along!" And with these words we entered the stadium.

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><p><em>If you aren't too mad at me for not writing for so long, please leave a tiny little review! Thanks!x<em>


	11. Chapter 11

"You can sit next to me." Charlie said, when we had reached the top box and led me to a seat in the first row.

We both sat down and a second later George slumped into the chair on my other side.

Hermione who was sitting some seats away came over to talk to me.

"Oh, Katharina, I'm so excited!" she said smilingly, "And I'm so happy that you are here with me!" And after a moment's thought she added: "If you want I can swap places with George or Charlie, so we can sit together."  
>"Oh no, Hermione, I'm perfectly fine between those two." I replied and returned her smile. "I know, this might sound stupid but I'm already excited myself. Even though I don't even know Quidditch."<br>"Yes, I guess it's all this excited atmosphere. It's almost as if you can feel the magic around us." she said, nodding, "So you're really okay with sitting here?"

It was quite sweet how my younger sister cared for me and I was just about to reassure her that she didn't need to be worried about me, when I saw Harry, who was standing nearest to the entrance of our box nudge Ron in the side with a very angry look on his face and nod towards someone who had just entered. I turned around to see who or what had caused his sudden anger and found myself looking at a rather rich-looking family.

The father was greeted enthusiastically by another wizard, wearing a green bowler and then turned to Mr Weasley, who greeted him with a short nod and a grim look on his face.

But instead of returning his nod or saying something like 'Hello', the man gave Mr Weasley a nasty look and said in a cold voice: "Good Lord, Arthur, what did you have to sell to get seats in the top box. Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much."

I gawped at him in disbelieve. Didn't this man have any manners at all? How unbelievably impolite of him to talk to dear Mr Weasley like that! I turned my head towards Mr Weasley to see how he reacted. Bill had gotten up and put a hand on his father's shoulder to calm him down. Mr Weasley looked up at him and gave him a reassuring but rather grim smile as if to say 'Don't worry, I won't overreact.' or whatever Bill had expected him to do.

When I looked at that horrible man again I saw that his eyes were also turned into my and my sister's direction. With a disgusted expression on his face he looked me up and down as if to measure me up.

"And who is..._this_?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

As if someone had pressed a button, Charlie suddenly jumped up in front of me.

"This is Katharina, a friend of our." he said calmly, though I could see the muscles on his jaws tighten.

After his words the man and his wife walked on to their seats but their son stayed behind.

He looked a lot like his father. The both were pale with blonde hair and pointed faces and they also wore the same expressions on them.

But instead of looking at me, the boy who looked like he was in my sister's age or maybe a bit younger addressed Hermione, "So," he said in a cold voice, "You've brought your muggel-sister along? Did you think that was a good idea?" and then he followed his parents.

Or rather tried to follow them but was arrested by Harry and Ron who had jumped over the seats and blocked his way now, wands ready in their hands.

I could feel the tension between those three and was afraid that something might happen every second now. Hermione obviously felt the same way. She was stepping from one foot on another looking worriedly from Ron and Harry to the boy and wrung her hands.

But right at the moment when I saw Harry opening his mouth to curse the boy, Charlie stepped in between them and cracked his knuckles. The boy gave him a frightened look and then hurried past Harry and Ron to his parents without saying another word.

"What was that all about?" I asked, slightly gasping because I had hold my breath when the boys had been standing there facing each other and just about to throw curses at each other as well.

"That was Draco Malfoy and his parents. Remember, I told you about him."

Oh, of course I remembered. He had given Hermione lots of trouble, saying mean things about her because he thought she was worse than others coming from a non-magical family.

"Stupid git!" Ron spat out and started to damn this Draco-boy under his breath. I could hear something like "show him" and "not letting him get at you" and "make him spit slugs next time".

"But Charlie owned him!" Fred said loudly, clapping his brother on the back.

"Well, of course I did!" Charlie said angrily now, "I wonder how he dare say something like that in front of the Minister of magic. But still you two," and he turned towards Ron and Harry now, "shouldn't use magic against him. This might bring you into big trouble."

Ron opened his mouth to protest against what Charlie had said. But just in that moment Mr Weasley said: "Look out, here are the mascots!" and we all turned towards the pitch and sat down.

Some kind of foreign music was filling the stadium and I could see a group of unbelievably beautiful women doing a dance.

"Ah, Veela." Mr Weasley said and started cleaning his glasses.

While I was still thinking how very _very _beautiful these women were and how I wished to look at least a bit like them, I realised the boys around me doing some weird things. Fred and George were both opening their shirts and Harry and Ron were about to climb the wall of our box.  
>I turned towards Charlie to ask him what this was all about. But Charlie didn't even look at me. He was brushing back his hair with his hands, standing up from his seat. And now he was even pulling up his sleeves and rippled his biceps. I stared at him in disbelief when suddenly the music stopped and the Veela left the pitch to sit on the sides.<p>

I was still quite bewildered when the Irish mascots, some flying leprechauns entered the stadium and looked across Fred and George towards my sister. She was rolling her eyes at me.

"The Veela have quite and effect on men." Mr Weasley informed me who had caught my confused look, "But ooh, look at that!" he added, as the flying leprechauns threw handfuls of gold into the audience.

"That was weird..." I said, more to myself than to anybody else. But surprisingly, Charlie seemed to think that I had addressed these words at him and turned to look at me while Ron and Ginny were crouching on the floor, picking up as many gold coins as they could get.

I looked Charlie in the eye. He looked very embarrassed and was even redder than he had been when we had been walking together to fetch the water. "I'm sorry," he said in a low voice, not looking me in the eye, "Katharina - ", he took a deep breath, "I- I didn't mean to act like that, honestly. It's just, probably - " he faltered again.  
>"The hormones?" I suggested, trying to catch his view, which wasn't as easy as it sounded as he was looking at his own feet now.<p>

"It's only, I had never thought that I would, kind of, fall for the Veela. I thought, after having met you..." his voice trailed of but now his head lifted a bit and he looked at me.

I didn't really know what to say. Did he mean, what I thought, he did? I mean, he had made some allusions before. But...I still couldn't believe it.

"Guess now you're in trouble, Charlie!" George said from my other side, who had obviously been listening to our conversation.

"No!" I exclaimed as a kind of reflex because I didn't want Charlie to feel bad. But then I realised that he might guess from this eager reply how I felt about him and added with a rather mean grin on my face, "You should have seen the twins, they were even worse!" Charlie hesitated for a second and then grinned at me. But we didn't have any time to continue our conversation because right then the match started and distracted -if not me- then at least Charlie, who was a great Quidditch-fan.

Even for me, who hardly knew anything about Quidditch, the match was amazing. Qudditch was such a fast sports. It was difficult to follow the _Quaffel_. And even though Charlie loved Quidditch and probably wanted to concentrate on the match, he still took the time to give me some important information like reminding me of different rules or telling me how the different positions were called again, when I asked for it. Once he even asked Ron for his Omnioculars to let me use them.

"If you turn this small wheel" he said, leaning over, "you can slow down the action. That can make it easier to follow the match but I wouldn't recommend because then you're always a bit behind. And, " he put his hand over mine to take the Omnioculars a bit away from my eyes to look through them together with me, "do you see the writing at the bottom? They tell you how the different moves are called."

Unfortunately we were just then interrupted by Ron who asked when he was getting back his glasses because he wanted to use them.

Charlie handed them back to his brother with an apologetic smile into my direction.

I smiled back an regretted that Ron had interrupted just when Charlie had put his hand onto mine which had felt so right and sent a chill down my spine.

When the Bulgarians scored, all the boys put their fingers into their ears and waited for us girls and Mr Weasley to tell them when the Veela had stopped dancing and Charlie gave me a funny look again and turned red.

The match was over way too quick, as we al thought. Ireland won by 170:160 and in the end the players even came into our box to get their Cup and I was really flustered to be in the same box as all these famous Quidditch-players.

Finally when we had applauded to the Bulgarian and the Irish team for ages and my hands were already starting to feel numb, we all got up and walked back to our camp site.

* * *

><p><em>Note:<br>__ I know this chapter isn't great but I promise to make up for it in the next one (I've already got it in my head) and to _pricrema_ I might add that there will be more romance in the next chapter , too ;) Now I've only got one little question and I would be so happy if you answered to it: Do you think that Katharina (or even worse, Charlie) is too much of a Mary-Sue? If one of them is, I'll do my best to change it!  
>-verliebtindich<br>_


	12. Chapter 12

When we got back to our tents we celebrated the Irish victory. Bill lighted the fire, this time with magic and Mr Weasley got us all some drinks, called Butterbeer. Despite this name it was quite delicious.

Mr Weasley went back into the tent and came out with two packages of sausages and a grill which he put over the fire. Meanwhile the boys were eagerly engaged in a discussion about the match, talking through every move, as it seemed to me and Hermione was talking to Ginny about school.

I remained silent and enjoyed listening to the different conversations.

"Have you already bought your books for next term?" Hermione said to Ginny.

"No, but Mum said something about going to Flourish and Blotts while we're here. So I think I'll have the books when we get back home."

"I've already bought most of the books at the beginning of the holidays," Hermione said, "To start studying beforehand, you know. There are the OWLs coming in fifth's year and you can never start too early, can you?"

"Well, I don't know about that," Ginny answered laughingly, "I'm always someone who does all the work last minute."

Hermione frowned a little at this but did not reply to it otherwise.

"What were Owls again?" I asked. I wasn't quite sure if I had ever heard of this term but certainly she wasn't talking about a flock of owls coming to them in their fifth year because that just didn't make sense.

"Oh, they are the Ordinary Wizarding Levels we have to pass at the end of year five. They are really important because it depends on the results which jobs we will be able to do later." My sister explained to me.

"Ah, I see. A bit like GCSEs?" I said.

She nodded, "Yes, right. You could compare these two to each other. And I want to be at least as good in my OWLs as you were in your GCSEs."

"I'm sure you will mange that." I replied encouragingly. I know that this must sound a bit nerdy but Hermione and I were both top students and our parents were very proud of us and I think it only natural for Hermione wishing to get top marks.

Then she turned back to Ginny who had been listening with a puzzled expression.

"Which new subjects did you choose for your third year, Ginny?"

"Muggle Studies and Care of Magical Creatures."

"Oh, why didn't you choose Arithmancy. I know everyone says it's so difficult but it's actually a really interesting subject."

"I don't know. First I wanted to take Divination. But Ron told me that it was the 'crappiest' subject he'd ever had. So Dad talked me into Muggle Studies instead. And Charlie had talked me into taking Care of Magical Creatures ages ago."  
>We all looked into Charlie's direction and saw that he had been listening to our conversation, too.<p>

"Believe me, Ginny, you gotta love it!", he now said, moving over to sit closer to us, "It is after all the subject I've learnt most from." And then he laughed out loud. I couldn't help smiling. I simply adored his laughter.

While I was smiling stupidly into space, Hermione had started talking to Ginny again and explained to her what she thought was the most interesting part about Muggle Studies. I looked away from the two and found myself staring Charlie in the eye.

We looked at each other for a moment and I was just about to say something I might have regretted afterwards when Charlie said:"Well, I'm quite hungry. Do you want some sausages, too?" I swallowed hard and nodded. So Charlie got up to fetch us some sausages and I was left there all alone with my funny thoughts.

It really was funny, I thought, starting to chew my lower lip. When I had looked at him, it had almost felt like he was, well, feeling the same way about me as I did about him.

But how could that be possible? I was his younger brother's friend's sister. And, not to forget, I was a _muggle_. It would be just so unlikely for him to,well, to _like_ me. But still there was this something I had seen in his eyes, only a minute ago which had told me a different story.

I was still nowhere near knowing what to think when Charlie came back and sat down and handed me a plate with a sausage, some toast and grilled tomatoes.

"There you go!" he said and made himself comfortable on the ground next to me. "I hope you like grilled tomatoes, too. But I had a funny feeling you would." He winked at me.

"I totally do! When I was at Hermione's age I had a vegetarian phase because I felt so sorry for all these poor animals and when we had barbecues the only thing I ever ate were tomatoes and corn."

"Wow, so you like animals?" he asked, chewing on his sausage.

"Yes, I do. Do you, too?"

"All kinds of animals or only the fluffy ones?" he said, grinning and ignored my question.

"I think I like them all. Of course I prefer dogs to, let's say, slugs. But I'm none of those girls who scream when they see one. Or kill them. Why?"

"Did anyone tell you what I do for a living?"

"No. I only know that you work in Romania but Hermione didn't tell me what you're doing there."

"Well, I'm studying dragons."  
>"D-dragons?" I stared at him in disbelief, "There really are dragons?" Why had Hermione never told me about them?<p>

"Yep. Are you a bit shocked now?" he asked in an apologetic tone.

"Well, no...not really. Maybe a bit surprised. But isn't it dangerous?"  
>"Yeah, but it's also fun and very interesting. You know, most people are afraid of dragons and hardly know anything about them apart from them being dangerous creatures."<p>

"And your family is okay with you, working with dragons?"  
>"You know Mum, she was of course really worried when I told her about my decision. But Dad agreed that it's an interesting job and by now, I guess, they're okay with it." He scratched his chin, "But when I first got back for holidays and had some burns on my hands, Mum wanted to persuade me to quit and work for the ministry or Gringotts instead."<p>

Then he smiled and and showed his palms to me.

Instinctively I reached over to touch the calluses with my finger. I moved my forefinger carefully over them when Charlie slowly closed his big hand over mine.

We turned towards each other.

"You've got really beautiful hands." He whispered.

"Thank you." I managed to say, my voice hardly being anything more than a whisper, too.

While he was still holding my hand with one of his, he reached over with his other hand now and pulled my hair back behind my ear.

I had totally forgotten where we were and what was going on around us. I had forgotten about the twins who could see us, or Hermione, or anyone else. I had forgotten about my doubts and fears.

The only one I could see and think of was Charlie, sitting there, in front of me, holding my hand and playing with a streak of my hair. It was like time was standing still or as if the universe was focussing only on the two of us.

But then something broke into our moment of happiness.

"Charlie, Katharina, get a move on!" I heard Bill shout at us.

Charlie blinked once or twice as if he had just woken from a dream and asked: "What's happening?"

"Deatheaters!" Bill said with a very pale face, "You have to get Katharina away from here!"

* * *

><p><em><span>Note:<span> I hope you liked this one. I'm not so sure if I made the best of this Katharina/Charlie-moment. But I did my best, honestly._


	13. Chapter 13

_Note: Sorry for letting you wait for this chapter for such a long time but I really had some difficulties writing it. But finally I managed to finish it so I really hope you like it. (I don't own Harry Potter)_

* * *

><p>I looked up and saw that only Charlie and I were left at our camp site. Now, that I was slowly regaining my senses, I could hear screams and dark laughter around us.<p>

Charlie pulled me up to my feet while Bill had already run away somewhere.

"Where's Hermione?" I croaked and looked around with wide eyes. Where was she? Was she okay?

Charlie didn't answer immediately as he had to figure out what was going on himself. But I panicked and pulled myself away from him. "Where is my sister?" I screamed hysterically.  
>"Calm down, Katharina! I'm sure my dad has taken care of the others. Let's... let's go into the forest." Charlie said, looking rather worried, "I think the voices are coming from the other direction." Then, holding his wand up like a torch, he took my hand and pulled me towards the dark path.<p>

I was very confused. What was going on and what was Charlie suddenly so worried about? I wanted to ask him about these death eaters Bill had mentioned but there was no time because he was just pulling me deeper and deeper into the forest and he was walking so fast that I started to get out of breath. I stumbled on behind Charlie for what seemed like hours and he kept on to my hand with a tight grip. Finally when we had gotten so deep into the forest that I wondered if we would ever find the way back to the camping site, Charlie slowed down and swung his wand around, looking for a place to rest. The light of his wand stopped at the root of an ancient-looking oak.

"Come on, over here." he said in a serious voice.

I swallowed hard and sat down next to him. There was a short silence between us during which I could only hear our breaths slowing down. While we sat there in silence I started wondering if I had done anything wrong because he had sounded so stern.

"What has just happened?" I asked in a small voice.

"It's...it's nothing."

I raised my eyebrows in disbelieve, "You just pulled me through the whole forest for _nothing_?"

"Well, it's not nothing. But I don't want you to get too worried."

I turned to face him directly and said: "But now that you've said that, I'm feeling even more worried. So: What's happened?"

Charlie took another deep breath before he answered.

"Okay. Has Hermione ever told you anything about death eaters?"

I frowned, trying to remember if I had ever heard of them but then shook my head.

"You-Know-Who?"

"What?"

"Has she told you about 'You-Know-Who'?"  
>"Is he this horrible wizard who had become more evil than any other before?"<br>Charlie nodded silently.

"But he's dead, isn't he?"

"Well, at least he's something like dead. But the death eaters were his followers in the times he was most powerful. And if they're back now, they are probably – well, nevermind."

"What?" I asked. What was it that he didn't want to tell me?

"Please don't worry, Katharina, but these d_eath eaters_-" he spat this word out with a nasty expression on his face, "-well, they're are after people like you or Hermione."

I could only stare at Charlie. I think, I had secretly already known that he was about to say something like that. After all I could still remember what Hermione had told me about this so-called "You-Know-Who" and it all sounded a lot like racism to me. But still; when Charlie had said it out loud it suddenly became so real.

He obviously saw my terror and reached over to hold my hand. I could feel his warm, hard fingertips cover mine.

"But please, please don't worry, Katharina. I'm sure we're safe here in the forest. I didn't see or hear anybody on our way out here. And even if they were here, I'd still be there for you to protect you."

He smiled at me but I simply could not return his smile.

"But we don't know what happened to Hermione! What if these death eaters got her? What if ..?" At that point I could not go on talking because I was sobbing so hard.

Angrily I wiped away the tears that had come while I had been talking. This certainly was not the time for crying. Maybe right now something horrible was happening to Hermione.

I just couldn't sit there, doing nothing so I got up.  
>Charlie next to me did the same but stopped me from walking away.<p>

"What do you want to do?"

"I want... I want to be there for her. I'm her elder sister. I'm supposed to protect her!" I said in a very high voice.

Charlie grabbed my arms.

"But I've already told you, that my dad is surely taking care of her and the others. You can't go back. It's too dangerous for you!"

He was probably right. I wouldn't be of any help to her anyway because after all she was the one of us who could do magic. And Charlie was also right about Mr Weasley taking care of her.

I rubbed my eyes again impatiently and looked up into Charlie's face. He gave me another sympathetic smile and gently pulled me back down to our place at the tree.

"You know, I'm worried, too. But there actually is hardly any reasons. I mean, think of all the ministry people around here. I'm sure they'll handle the situation in no time. I only brought you away from the camping site to be one hundred percent sure."

I managed a half-smile while he continued: "Let's just talk about something else for now until we can go back."

I just nodded and relaxed a bit more, leaning back on the trunk.

"You and Hermione are pretty close, aren't you?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, we are. Or rather were. It was so weird when she found out about Hogwarts and that she's a witch and everything. Before that we had spent so much time together and I was already excited about her coming to my school. But that day somehow changed everything."

"Were you sad that she went to another school?"

"Yes, partly. But I was also happy for her because it somehow made sense. That she was different. Special." My voice trailed off as I was remembering what it felt like when Hermione found out about being a witch.

"But you're special, too." Charlie said.

"Am I?" I said sceptically.

"Of course. And I'm sure your parents love you both equally much! And you know what else I'm sure about? I'm sure _your_ parents never forgot to pick you up from the railway station when you hadn't seen them a year." He chuckled.

"What?" I asked in astonishment, "Did that happen to you?"

"Well, yeah, almost. It was my third year at Hogwarts. My dad had to work that day and Ginny and Ron had been ill, chicken pox or something, I think, so Mum was really busy and the twins were still at home, too. Luckily I wasn't on my own. Bill was there with me and Percy of course. It was his first year and he started crying when we were the last ones left at King's Cross. You know, when you're a kid, it gives you the feeling that your parents don't really care and might have abandoned you. So Bill was busy calming Percy down and I almost cried myself. But after about half an hour Mum appeared and bought us all some muggle sweets because she had such a bad conscience." Suddenly he laughed out loud, making me flinch."Looking back on it now, it wasn't that bad after all. But when we were standing there, kind of lost in the muggle world it really was quite frightening."

I giggled, imagining a 13-year-old Charlie in his dark robes among all those normal people.

"To whom of your siblings are you the closest?" I asked, fiddling with the grass between my fingers.

"Hm..." He thought for a moment, "When we were still going to Hogwarts I would've said Bill because we were both almost the same age. But now I couldn't say. I like them all equally much. When the twins were in their first year at Hogwarts, I couldn't stand them because they still played pranks on me and I felt like a total idiot being fooled my two First Years. But now, as far as I know, they've found a new favourite victim in Ron. That's why I always kind of try to protect him. Though I'm not sure if it works. But I think the two have learned not to cross the line by now."

While he was talking there were little white clouds emerging in front of Charlie as it was getting colder. Realising this, he suddenly turned to me: "Are you... are you cold, Katharina?"

As I was shivering a little, I couldn't deny it, "Only a little bit."  
>"Oh, take my coat then." And he immediately took off his coat and put it around my shoulders.<p>

"Thanks, that's really nice," I whispered, "Are you sure that you won't get cold now?"

"Don't worry 'bout that." he smiled, "I don't usually get cold very fast. You know, working outside all the time toughens you."

While I wrapped his coat closer around me, Charlie rummaged his pockets.

"Do you want some of these?" he finally asked, pulling a package of small sweets out of them.

"What are they?" I asked interestedly.

"Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans."

I looked at them closely.

"Oh, I know them, we've got them, too. But ours are called Jelly Beans!" I exclaimed excitedly.

Now it was my turn to rummage in my pockets. I was sure that I still had an open packages of them somewhere in my jacket's pocket. Finally I found them and proudly presented them to Charlie.

"Do you want to swap?" I asked, grinning at him.

"Sure!" he said, grinning back, "let's see if yours got different flavours." And he picked a white pineapple bean, looked at it for a second and then threw it into his mouth. After he had chewed it for a moment to looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face.

"What kind of flavour is this supposed to be?"

"Wasn't it a pineapple one?"

"Pineapple?"

I nodded, searching for a white one myself to be sure. But when I chewed it, I was only proven right. It _was_ pineapple. And so I nodded again, turned the package around and showed him the pictures of the different kinds of beans.

To my surprise Charlie suddenly laughed out loud. "You know which flavour you pick before you've tried it? But where's the fun part about it?"

I looked at him confused. "Well, don't you know the flavour before you try it?"

"No, that's what's so cool about Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. You never know what you get. Here, try one!" and he held out his package to me to let me pick a bean.

I chose one in a very dark shade of red and put it into my mouth – and spat it out again immediately.

"Uagh! Was that...was that salami?"

Charlie laughed at me again, "No idea. But if it tasted like salami, it probably was. Here, try another one!"

This time it took me a bit longer to choose and I finally decided on a light yellow one which I hoped would taste of vanilla. But when I tried it, it was mustard! I had to cough really hard because it was so hot in my mouth, which wiped away Charlie's grin and replaced it with a look of remorse.

"Hold out your hands!" he told me, picking up his wand from the ground, "Form them into a bowl!"

Though I had no idea what that was about, I did as I was told.

"_Aguamenti_!"

And a fountain of water spread from his wand into my hands. I caught it and drank a bit of the water which made my coughing go away.

"Thanks!" I croaked.

"Which taste was that one anyway?"

"Mustard."  
>"Oh, bad luck. Let me pick one for you." And he then took some time, looking through the beans and finally handing me bright red one.<p>

"I'm not sure what flavour this one has. But I'm pretty sure, it won't be worse than mustard and salami." And with these words he put the bean into my hand.

I tried and he was right.

"Hm, it's tomato!"

"See, it _can_ be fun to eat these."

"They certainly are more fun the mine." I agreed.

"But I'll keep yours anyway because they remind me of you." As he said that, Charlie looked me deep into the eyes and I had the funny feeling that he could see more than only my brown eyes. Much more. It felt like he could see right into my soul. Without realising it, we had moved closer and closer to each other. Charlie's arm was now moving towards me and was slowly pulled around my waist and I leaned my head closer and closer to his, when suddenly there was a cracking noise in the bushes behind us and a dark figure stepped out of the trees.

Charlie and I backed away in the split of a second and Charlie had already jumped in front of me when I was still getting up.

"Who's there?" he shouted, pointing his wand at the stranger.

Now that the person moved closer, I could see that he was wearing a mask which looked like a skull. I shuddered. I didn't need anyone to tell me that this guy was a death-eater.

"Never mind who _I_ am." the figure said in dark voice. "But aren't you one of the blood-traitors? And who's that little lady you're trying so hard to hide from me? Do you want me to demonstrate you on her how people like you should be treated? _Crucio_!" And suddenly he through a pink bolt at the spot where my face had been peeking out behind Charlie's back. But Charlie reacted immediately and threw a red bolt at the other guy which unfortunately didn't reach him.

"Go hide behind the tree!" Charlie shouted at me while he and the death eater continued fighting.

I did as I was told and ran around the tree but I couldn't resist watching because I wanted to know what happened to Charlie.

"_Stupor_!" he shouted at the death eater and this time he got him. The death eater suddenly collapsed and fell to the ground. Charlie ran over to him and made ropes come out of his wand to tie him up.

I came out of my hiding and ran towards Charlie. "Is he dead?" I squeaked.

Charlie turned around as he heard my voice, opened his arms and pulled me into a bear hug. It felt so good and safe to be in his strong arms. I returned his hug and looked up into his eyes. To my surprise I found them shimmering in tears.

"I could've never forgiven me if he'd hurt you." he whispered. And then his face came as close to mine as it had never been before and I felt his wonderfully soft lips upon my own.

* * *

><p><em><span>(another) Note:<span>_ _So, just to let you know, this is probably the penultimate chapter and if there's anything you want to be included in the final one, please let me know and I'll do my best to squeeze it in!:)_


	14. Chapter 14

I wished that our kiss would have never ended. But suddenly I felt Charlie pulling himself away from me and taking me into a protective embrace. I opened my eyes and realised that he was looking into the sky with a very worried look on his face. I followed his example and gasped for breath. There was a giant skull grinning down at us from the sky.

I shivered. No matter what this meant again, it was certainly something bad. I looked at Charlie, who had pulled his arms tightly around me, with a questioning look.

"It's the Dark Mark," he said, pulling me even closer, "I have to inform Dad."

He frowned for a moment, then muttered, more to himself than to me: "I've never worked this out before but it might work now." And then he smiled at me as if I had given him an idea or something.

I just wanted to ask him what he was talking about when he took a step back, held out his wand and closed his eyes in concentration. Then he said in a loud voice: "_Expecto Patronum_!" and a shining shape broke out of the top of his wand. As I stared at it its outlines became clearer and I realised that it was something like a white misty dragon. It remained in the air in front of Charlie for a moment, still connected to him by a stream of this gleaming white mist then it flew away.

I didn't know why but for some reason this dragon made me happy and when I looked at Charlie he was literally beaming at me.

"I never managed to produce a Patronus. But thanks to you I did it this time!"

I looked at him confused and he added, "You can only produce a Patronus by thinking of a very happy memory. And well,..." he blushed a little bit, "I've been thinking of you."

I couldn't help but just embrace him again. While I was standing on my toes, my arms pulled around him, I asked, "What did the Patronus do?"

"I sent him with a message to my dad to ask him what's going on. Hopefully he'll send one back soon."

We stood there for a while, our arms around each other. Then I broke the silence again because a question was troubling my thoughts, "Charlie, what is this Dark Mark about? Has it something to do with the Death Eaters?"

Charlie pulled himself slowly out of my embrace and looked at me with a stern look.

"Yes. It's You-Know-Who's sign. I really don't know what's going on tonight. They haven't put the Dark Mark into the sky for about 15 years. It's all quite alarming. But I don't understand it. Let's hope Dad's Patronus will show up soon."

I looked at him and didn't know what to say. Charlie looked really serious so I thought that there might be something else he didn't want to say to me. Probably something terrible again which he didn't want me to worry about.

After a while I followed his example and looked around for Mr Weasley's Patronus. Everything was covered in green light from the Dark Mark now, which made the whole forest look much gloomier than before. But suddenly the green was interrupted by stream of bright white light and a silvery weasel materialised in front of us. Just when I wanted to ask Charlie if it was another Patronus, the weasel opened its mouth and spoke with Mr Weasley's voice: "Come back to the tents, we will discuss everything there later." Then it dissolved into thin air.

Charlie and I looked at each other and then he took my hand and we walked back to the camping site.

On our way back I realised that the way hadn't been as far as I had first thought and after about ten minutes we could see the lights marking the way.  
>Soon, we reached our pitch. The twins and Ginny were already standing in front of our tents, looking more serious than I had seen them before. One of the twins had put his arm protectively around Ginny and it looked as if he tried to cheer her up. When Charlie and I got closer, the other twin faced. Looking from Charlie to me and then to our hands, a wide grin stretched on his face and I recognized him as Fred.<p>

"I see you took advantage of the whole situation. Good to see all of this had its bright side, too."

And he came over to clap Charlie on the shoulder.

Charlie grinned back at him, "Do I hear some kind of jealousy in your voice?" he asked jokingly.

While Fred explained to Charlie why he didn't envy him at all (girls cause way too much trouble to bother about them), I walked towards Ginny and George who had been looking at me and Charlie with two very different expressions. Ginny with a rather curious and happy one, George with the mirror image of his brother's face.

"Where's Hermione?" I asked, rather anxious.

Ginny and George exchanged a short look before Ginny said, "We lost her and the other two. – "

"But Dad has sent us a Patronus, saying that they're all alright and that they're on their way to us now." George added quickly.

As he said so, I heard steps approaching me from behind and wheeled around. But I was only facing Bill who, followed by Fred and Charlie, came to talk to us.

"Don't worry! Nobody has been murdered!" he finally announced when we were all standing together in a circle.

"Murdered?" I mouthed, my eyes wide with horror. So that was it, what Charlie didn't want to mention, he had been afraid that somebody had been killed? A shiver ran down my spine. It could have been Hermione! As George had just said, they had lost her. And _I_ hadn't been there for her! I started shivering at the thought that something might have happened to Hermione while I had been spending time, kissing some random guy I had only just met. Not wasting a thought on her.

But then I suddenly felt two arms wrapping around me and Charlie whispered in my ear: "It's alright, Katharina. Nothing has happened!"

"Yes. But what if? What if some of the Death Eaters had attacked Hermione?"

"Katharina, I'm really sorry. I didn't know that they weren't with Dad. Otherwise I would have looked for them with you. But everything is fine now. So please calm down."

"But...aren't you worried at all? Or have a bad conscience?"  
>"No. Because nothing happened."<p>

I was just about to go on shouting at him when I heard a familiar voice calling my name.

"Katharina! Are you alright?"

I turned around and the next moment Hermione's bushy hair was covering my sight as we hugged tightly.

"Oh Hermione," I almost sobbed, "I'm so happy that nothing happened to you!"

Then I held her an arm-length away from me and asked in a worried tone: "What happened?"  
>But in the same moment Mr Weasley told us all to go into the boys' tent to talk things over inside.<p>

In the tent we all sat around the table which stood in the middle of the first room.

"What's going on, Dad? And where is Percy?"  
>Mr Weasley took of his glasses and massaged his temples before he answered, "Percy stayed with some other ministry people who are modifying the muggles' memories."<br>"Which muggles?" Charlie asked. He sat two seats away from me and gave me another worried look as he asked his question.

"The Death Eaters made muggles fly in the air upside down." Bill answered in a grim voice.

"Disgusting!" George said.

I realised that Hermione next to me was shivering.

"But why did they do that?" I asked, putting my hand protectively on hers.

"That's what they understand by fun." Mr Weasley said and looked as if he was going to be sick.

"But what was going on with Harry and the house elf?" Fred asked, looking from his father to Harry and back again.

"Ron, Hermione and I were hiding in the forest when I suddenly heard a voice and the Dark Mark appeared, " Harry started explaining, "next moment your dad and a bunch of other ministry people apparated around us and tried to stun us because they thought that we had made the Dark Mark appear. Then Mr Crouch went to the place the voice had come from and came back with Winky his house elf. And then he gave clothing to her because she had disobeyed his orders –"

"It was horrible, how Mr Crouch had treated her! Punishing her for being afraid!" Hermione interrupted Harry's report in an agitated voice, "And nobody did anything about it! Mr Diggory called her 'elf' all the time as if she didn't have a proper name!..."

I had been concentrating on Hermione's words, trying to figure out what she was talking about and jumped when suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and realised that Charlie was bending down to me and whispered in my ear: "Can I talk to you for a sec? Outside?"

I looked back at the table. Hermione was now having vigorous discussion with Ron about his views on the house-elves. I raised from my chair and followed Charlie outside.

When the entrance of the tent had closed behind me he said immediately: "I want to apologize to you, Katharina! I think I didn't understand your worries before. When we came back to the tents and Bill told us that everything was alright, I was so relieved that I didn't care much more about what could have happened. But now that I've heard what the Death Eaters did, I feel really bad about not reacting to your worries."

"Oh," I said. I certainly hadn't expected anything like that, "It's okay, Charlie. I think I might have overreacted a bit. But, as I said earlier, Hermione is my little sister and I feel responsible for her. So..."

"So, you're not mad at me anymore?"

"No, I haven't even been mad at you before."

He smiled down at me and smiled back at him. Then he gave me a short kiss and said, turning away from me: "I'm sorry but I have to find some of the ministry people because of this guy I've stunned in the forest. Even if I think he deserves it, we cannot let him lie in the forest." In with these words he ran away.

I was left standing in front of the tents wondering what to do now. I didn't have time to think about this whole Charlie-and-me-thing. Now that he obviously seemed to like me, too, how was this whole thing going to go on?

But I didn't have much time to think about it because after a while the entrance opened again and Hermione and Ginny came out of the tent.

"Dad said that we should go to bed now so that we can leave really early tomorrow." Ginny informed me and I followed the two into our tent.

"By the way, where did Charlie go?" Ginny asked while we changed into our pyjamas. Even though I couldn't see her, I had the funny feeling that she was staring at me.

"He had to find someone from the ministry, I think." I answered and tried to keep my voice as normal as possible. When I was changed I climbed into my bunk in the middle. Hermione was already lying in the one below mine and smiled up to me. Making myself comfortable she suddenly decided to climb into my bunk as well. She then leaned very near to my ear and whispered: "I think Charlie is the nicest of Ron' brothers." And then she quickly went back to her own bunk.

Meanwhile Ginny had reached the bed and climbed up into her bed. Then Hermione turned off the light and I was happy to have some time to settle my thoughts.

But the time hadn't come yet.

"What's going on between you and Charlie, Katharina?" Ginny asked from above me and I heard some shuffling from below which told me that Hermione was listening too.

_Well, what _was_ going on between us? And, even more importantly, where was it leading?_I wondered.

Realising that was still stuck for an answer, I sighed and said: "I don't know."  
>"You know, I saw you two kissing before we came out of the tent." Ginny giggled.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Note:<strong> First of all thanks a lot for each and every review I got! All you reviewers are my favouite people! Please keep reviewing, even if it's only a few words!

In the last chapter I mentioned that this was going to be the last one but there's another one following because I hadn't planned to make this one so long. So - you can be looking forward to another chapter!=)


	15. Chapter 15

"Oh, thank goodness, there you are!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed as we came within sight of the Burrow.

We had taken an early Portkey at about five o'clock back to the Stoathead Hill and had walked back to the Weasley's home.

Mrs Weasley now came running towards us, a rolled up newspaper in her hand. When she reached us, she threw herself into Mr Weasley's arms and kissed him. Then she hugged her sons and Ginny one after the other, telling them how worried she had been about all of them. To my surprise she then came to hug Harry, Hermione and me, too and said to me: "I was so worried about you especially! You didn't even have a wand to defend yourself and with all those horrible, horrible people around." She took a step back and stroked my hair.

"Don't worry, Mum, we took care of Katharina." Charlie said and put his arm casually around my shoulder.

"Oh, did you?" Mrs Weasley asked and smiled at the two of us and then at her husband.

"Let's go inside! I'm really hungry and tired!" Ron yawned behind us. And as nobody had anything to object, we all followed his example and walked across the yard towards the house.

Inside Mrs Weasley immediately started to cook a huge breakfast for us while she told us what she head read in the newspaper about what had happened at the World Cup.

During breakfast we were all rather quite, being both hungry and tired. After we were all fed, Mrs Weasley told us to go to bed for another few hours before my parents would come to pick me up. So I followed Hermione and Ginny up into her room. But when the two of them fell asleep after a few minutes, I was lying on my mattress thinking about what was going to happen now. My parents would come and pick me up this afternoon and then all the magic would be over for me. No more Quidditch, no more wands, no more Weasleys and, worst of all, no more Charlie.

I felt tears pricking in my eyes as I thought of it.

_This is ridiculous_, I told myself, _I've only known Charlie for two days now. How can I really miss him?_ But I was already missing him now. If only I could at least stay a few days longer. But at breakfast Mrs Weasley had mentioned that Charlie would go back to Romania in a few days too.

A small voice in the back of my head told me that I wouldn't have worked out anyway. Even if Charlie wouldn't live in Romania. I tried not to listen to this small voice but it got louder and louder. It reminded me of Charlie being a wizard and me being a muggle. And, honestly, how could this ever work out?

I turned back and forth on the mattress. But every time I closed my eyes, Charlie's face appeared before my eyes and kept me from falling asleep. As I wasn't very tired anyway, I decided to get up again. I silently sneaked out of Ginny's room and went downstairs to find Mrs Weasley in the living room, knitting.

"Katharina, dear, what are _you_ doing here?" she asked in a surprised tone when I entered the room, "Don't you want to sleep for a while?"  
>"No," I answered, sitting down in an armchair next to hers, "I'm not really tired."<br>"Very well," she said smiling and put aside her piece of knitting, "Would you like some tea?"

"No, thanks."

"Then let me at least get you some Pumpkin juice." she said, waved her wand and a glass and an orange bottle came flying towards us from the kitchen. She caught them both in mid-air and poured some juice into the glass and handed it over to me.

While I tried the pumpkin juice, Mrs Weasley said: "I hope you've enjoyed the Word Cup. Despite what happened afterwards."

I swallowed the deliciously sweet but also refreshing juice and answered: "Yes, it was..." I couldn't help thinking of Charlie again: how he'd let me hold his wand, how we'd been eating Bertie Bott's Beans and how he'd saved me from the Death Eater. "... great" I finished in a whispered tone, blinking away some tears which tried to steal into my eyes again.

"Maybe you can come and visit us again for the next holidays." Mrs Weasley suggested after she'd been looking at me for a moment.

"Really?" I asked, looking up at her.

"Why not? We always enjoy Hermione's company and I'm sure she'd love to have you with her. From what Ron told me, she's talked a lot about you. And we would all love to have you with us for a bit longer. After all you and me haven't had much time for a little chat as I was so busy the day before yesterday and then there was the World Cup."

"Thank you. But I don't want to be a trouble to you."

"Oh, don't be silly, dear. You're no trouble to me! And I'm sure Arthur would very much enjoy questioning you about your muggle life." She winked at me and I smiled back at her.

I just thought about what to say next, when we both turned around as we heard steps from the kitchen.

"Oh, I think Charlie's back already." Mrs Weasley said calmly.

I blushed, immediately cursing myself for it, when Charlie entered the living room.

"I could swear that somebody has taken my broom since the last time I've used it. It's always standing in a different – oh, Katharina..."

As Charlie was obviously speechless for a moment, Mrs Weasley explained to me: "Charlie couldn't sleep either so's been outside to fly his broom." Then she got up and approached the kitchen door, saying something about preparing lunch.

"Katharina, can we talk for a moment?" Charlie said, when his mother had closed the door behind her.

I felt my inside cringe and managed a silent nod.

"Shall we go outside?" he suggested, "I really don't want to be interrupted by my mother or the twins or anybody else."

I nodded again and followed him to the back door which lead to an untidy garden. Charlie walked towards the back of the garden and finally sat down on an old wooden bench next to little pond which was almost hid in the high grass.

I sat down next to him and waited for what he had to tell me.

"Katharina," he said and reached over for my hand, "I...I...sorry, I'm rubbish at stuff like this..."

I squeezed his hand shortly and gave him a quizzical look.

Charlie took a deep sigh and started over again.

"Katharina, " at this point he paused again and then said very quickly, "I love you."  
>Wow, was that true? Had the wonderful Charlie Weasley really just told me that he loved me.<p>

I realised that it was Charlie's turn now to look at me quizzically.

So I whispered, "I love you too, but –"

But he didn't give me the chance to phrase my 'but' because at that moment his mouth covered my own and this kiss felt even better than our first one.

When our lips separated again after a while, Charlie pulled me closer to him and I leaned my head at his shoulder. We sat there together in silence for some time until the little voice in my head reappeared and reminded me of the fact that I was leaving this afternoon.

"Charlie," I started off, "where...where do we go from here."

Charlie heaved a deep sigh before answering.

"You know, that's what I've been thinking about when Mum sent us all to sleep. And that's why I couldn't fall asleep and went outside to fly some rounds on my broom. But then I thought that we just have to work it out! I know we can!"

"But...how?"

"Come with me to Romania!"

"What?"

"I don't mean forever. At least not for a start. But you could come and visit me over there."

I stared at him in disbelief. Was he serious about it. After all we only knew each other for about two days. But on the other hand the idea of seeing him again soon and visiting him in Romania sounded compelling.

Charlie still waited for me to say something.

"I... I don't know."

His eyes saddened at my words so I quickly added, "It's not that I don't want or anything. It's just all happening so fast and I'm sure my parents wouldn't approve of it.

He nodded, as if he hadn't thought of this aspect before.

"But, maybe I could visit you?" he then asked.

I smiled. I was sure my parents wouldn't have to much against that. "That's a great idea! I'll talk to my parents about it."

A broad smile spread across Charlie's face as he pulled me into a bear-hug and whispered into my ear how much he loved me.

My parents arrived at the Burrow at five o'clock in the afternoon. I had spent the whole day together with Charlie because both of us wanted to seize every second we still had together.

When our car pulled into the Weasleys' yard, a lump made my throat all tight, no matter how hard I swallowed. Charlie squeezed my hand again before I walked towards our car.

As I reached it, my parents had already got out and came to hug me and Hermione.  
>"We're so sorry," Dad said, "but we cannot stay long. Have you got your suitcase ready, Katharina?"<p>

I walked back inside to get my things while the Weasleys chatted with my parents and Hermione, who was to stay in the Burrow, said good-bye to them.

When I walked through the kitchen with my suitcase, I heard steps on the staircase and, having a funny feeling that it would be Charlie to say good-bye to me in private, I waited for him.

I was right, a second later Charlie entered the kitchen, holding two small boxes. He handed me the first, "That's for you." he added.

I opened the box and realised that it was a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Charlie grinned at me.

"Oh, Charlie." I whispered, "Thanks!"

"It's no big thing." He said, blushing.

"What about the other one?"  
>He handed the second box over to me. As I opened it, I looked down onto a box full of crumbs.<p>

What was that about? I looked at Charlie with a questioning expression.

"That's, that's for the owls?"

I frowned. "Ordinary Wizarding Levels?"

"No," Charlie laughed, "For the owls I'm going to send to you! You can feed them with theses owl-biscuits."  
>"Ooh..." That was sweet.<p>

"And now to the essential." Charlie said and kissed me again.

"So, did you enjoy your time with the Weasleys?" my mum asked, turning towards me from the front seat, when we drove off the Weasleys' yard again and onto the road.

I blinked very quickly and pressed my lips together to keep me from starting to cry.

Only when the Burrow was out of sight I realised that my mum had asked me a question.

"Yes, it was lovely." I said, no longer trying to force away the tears that were now dripping down my cheeks. And then I told her about Charlie.


	16. Some kind of epilogue

**I'm sorry to all of you weren't sure if the last chapter was the last one. The reason for this is that I didn't even know it myself by yesterday evening. I had the idea of this chapter but wasn't sure if I should write it or not. But as you can see, I _have_ written it. So, here's some kind of epilogue:**

Dear Katharina,

I really enjoyed my time at your place! I've given your mum's recipe for the carrot cake to my mum and she's only added some newt's eye and dog's tongue to make it more delicious.

No, honestly, I still cannot get over the hilarious presentation of the witches in this play we went to. But nevertheless it really was great!

As I've told you, I've never before been to a theatre.

I know, it's only been two weeks since I last saw your pretty face but still I miss you so much as if it were two years.

(By the way, is the owl I gave to you, still alive and did you finally name it?)

I still cannot believe that you're learning Bulgarian now and that you're really planning on coming to Bucharest in the summer to attend university there.

Bucharest is only a one-hour-broom-fligh away from the dragon reserve and I could see you at least every weekend!

If that's possible, it even makes me love you more than I already do.

I cannot wait until you get here. There are so many things I want to show you and so many people and dragons I want you to meet.

And maybe we can even find a theatre somewhere around here.  
>Do you think they'll have one in Bucharest?<p>

Oh, I gotta go now. Seems like the new dragons have set another shed on fire. But don't worry, it sounds more dangerous than it is!

Tell my greetings to your parents and my mum and the twins send their love to all of you. (Though I'm not sure if Fred and George were serious about it.)

Can't wait to see you again soon!

Lots and lots of love,

Charlie

**So, that's it. This _really_ is the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!:)**

**Thanks to all you lovely people who've read, alerted and favourited my story! And a special thanks to all of you who've reviewed, thank you _Ronhermioneforevs, basserandstuff, Faith NightGrace, unkinnh, faeriemaiden96, jade2nightwing, pricrema, TeddyTan, WeasleyRainbow, TwiHard24, MissMellark, -X, 11greengummybears, iluvcorgi22, KyroxIsxSmexy, Sara and Kisa, LookIntoHerEyes, Amyb11, Isabella95, Ryle Culler, fredandgeorgeweaslywife101, luneara eclipse, FleurSuoh _and_ Courtneyfan14_! You're great and whenever you want me to read and review your stories, feel free to tell me;)**


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